Baraza Blog- 6th January 2017

You said, We did....

.....plus homework OOSHL feedback (y8)

We had a Halloween and Christmas themed day which went down very well and others are planned for this year.

Can we have hot chocolate?

This is now available.

Can we make the queues shorter?

On average the queues have gone with at least 15 mins to spare- however we will try to do more… (Mr Plester is meeting the manager of the Refectory next week to look at ways of speeding up service)

Can the 1 or 2 students that don’t clean up after
themselves be given a C3 to clean up? Staff on duty have been reminded.

Can we have 'meal deals'? These are now available.

Can we have signs telling us what food is on
offer? These are now in place.

We will also invite the Refectory staff to a future
Baraza.

Building:

Can we have more chairs in the Refectory?

This was done straight after Baraza.

Can we have more benches outside?

We have ordered 9 more benches which should be here shortly.

Can there be a water fountain in the Fitness Suite?

This is currently being fitted along with air conditioning (that was requested in an earlier Baraza).

Sometimes the West Staircase can be busy.

The South staircase has now been opened to help ease congestion.

Can we have some table tennis tables?

3 concrete tables have been bought and fitted.

Can we have a new container for the balls on the Tennis
Courts?

Yes, we will be buying a new one and one to store the table tennis bats and balls.

Can we make the road crossing safer? We are having more fences fitted on Torrington Avenue to ensure students cross at the crossing; assemblies took place to remind students where to cross; Mr Plester has asked parents not to park on the pavement on Torrington Avenue. There has been a huge improvement since September but we continue to keep student safety as the highest priority.

OOSHL:

Can we have a year 8 residential? Yes- one is being planned for this year

Can we have: Basketball club? Table tennis club? Coventry FC
come in to train us? Cricket club? Girls’ football team? Martial Arts club? Many of these will be put in place once the Sports Hall has been finished at the end of January. A Taekwondo club has now started

Can we have girls’ rugby matches?

Yes – these are organised for the Spring term

Can we have after school swimming club? Mr Hudson will investigate this regarding costs.

Can we use the music practice rooms at break and
lunch? Yes- please see Mr Plester to book a room

Rewards:

Can these be given out as some students are
still waiting? We are now up to date with giving out rewards certificates apologies for any delay.

Further OOSHL feedback- homework club:

Some parents and students have recently commented that the trial of our current model of homework club needs improving. Here are year 8's thoughts:

Can we listen to music on our headphones to work?

Can we talk quietly (especially so we can help each other)?

Can some of us do homework in the library?

Can there be more teachers/ support on hand in homework club? We would like to be able to help each other as well.

Can we use computers if needed?

Can we sit with friends (or students in our class so we can help each other)?

Mr Plester and Mrs Brake have already met to discuss how to improve homework club and all of the above (plus suggestions from parents) were taken into account. We will keep parents and students informed of further updates.

Background to homework club:

One of the most important areas of our OOSHL programme is homework club with the aim to get students into good habits with their homework.

Getting the right balance of students being able to get an hour's homework completed as well as enjoying the experience is vitally important. Our experience tells us that children learn in different ways- some like working in silence, others like to chat, some prefer to work together on homework, and others on their own.

The use of computers is an interesting question. Again, from our experience, most students love to use the computers but not all students are as productive as they could be when it comes to using computers for homework! Also not all homework is computer based and on many occasions it is better to complete homework on paper or in exercise books.

Students always know when they will be doing homework club and are aware to bring homework to get on with or a reading book. Unfortunately it is not possible for students to join other clubs if they do not have any homework as we need to know where all students are in the building and other clubs are already full.

Students also have the opportunity to do homework in the library from 8am every morning, break time, lunch time and after school on Mondays and Fridays till 4pm.